This invention relates to inflatable life rafts and more particularly to a new and improved life raft with an inflatable boarding ramp with a connector therebetween.
Inflatable life rafts are generally compulsory equipment on certain sea-going vessels as well as aircraft because of their unique advantage that they can be stowed in an exceedingly small space and then deployed in a matter of seconds under adverse condition. It is important in the deployment of these inflatable rafts that means be provided to facilitate their boarding and accessibility by personnel from the waters which is not necessarily done under ideal conditions. To accommodate such boarding, life rafts have employed ramps that are attached to the inflatable raft but at a lower level than the side walls of the raft. In the process of inflating such rafts, which are generally composed of a plurality of circular tubes stacked and suitably connected together, the tube chambers are generally connected to a common gas source or charged cylinder to facilitate their inflating. With the placement or attachment of the ramp to the raft, it has been necessary to inflate the ramp from the chamber of the raft tube or tubes since the ramp chamber is generally of a much lesser volume. When the raft is in use, the connection between the raft tubes and the ramp was considered permanent or non-detachable. As the raft in rough sea conditions could undergo unusual stresses, a tube in the boarding ramp could be punctured and the boarding ramp and the chamber (lower set of tubes in the raft) supplying air to such ramp would deflate leaving the raft with only half of its buoyancy or load carrying capacity. The present invention provides the new concept of interconnecting the ramp chambers with the raft chambers that supply the air inflating means for the ramp with a disconnect coupling therebetween which closes off the respective chambers to prevent deflation of the air supplying chamber from the raft without jeopardizing its integrity or reducing its full carrying capacity. Such action disconnects or isolates the raft chambers from the ramp chamber before any failure occurs, thus pressure will be maintained in one chamber (for example the lower tube or tubes of the raft) if the other chamber (ramp tubes) is punctured. The present invention utilizes standard available hardware which makes the assembly unique in that it can be readily made, repaired and maintained.